Blood Fire Death is the fourth studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released on 8 October 1988, through Music for Nations sublabel, Under One Flag. The album, although mostly black metal, includes some of the first examples of Viking metal.[1] According to the book Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult by Dayal Patterson, Blood Fire Death began a second trilogy, an era Quorthon described as the "pre-Christian Swedish Viking Era".
Background and recording
The lyrics to "For All Those Who Died" were taken from a poem by Erica Jong, first published in her book Witches (1981),[2] while the first three verses of "A Fine Day to Die" are taken from "Cassilda's Song" of Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow.
The front cover comes from the painting The Wild Hunt of Odin (1872) by Peter Nicolai Arbo. The painting as well as the opening track "Oden's Ride Over Nordland" use the Wild Hunt motif from folklore. Blood Fire Death established this motif in metal culture, where it since has become popular with a number of bands and event organizers.[3]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 6/10[4] |
In 2009, IGN included Blood Fire Death in their "10 Great Black Metal Albums" list.[5]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Quorthon.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Odens Ride Over Nordland" | 2:59 |
| 2. | "A Fine Day to Die" | 8:35 |
| 3. | "The Golden Walls of Heaven" | 5:22 |
| 4. | "Pace 'Till Death" | 3:39 |
| 5. | "Holocaust" | 3:25 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "For All Those Who Died" | 4:57 |
| 7. | "Dies Irae" | 5:11 |
| 8. | "Blood Fire Death" | 10:28 |
| 9. | "Outro" | 0:58 |
Note: The "Outro" is not listed on the cover and is not included on the cassette release.
Personnel
- Bathory
- Quorthon – guitars, vocals, percussion, effects, producer, engineer, mixing
- Vvornth – drums
- Kothaar – bass
- Production
- Boss (Börje Forsberg) – producer, engineer, mixing
- Peter Nicolai Arbo – album cover painting, The Wild Hunt of Odin (Åsgårdsreien)
- Pelle Matteus – sleeve photography
References
- ^ a b Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Blood Fire Death - Bathory : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ "TheLeftHandPath.com - On Jos. A. Smith's illustrations for Witches + A statement from Black Mark Records". thelefthandpath.com. 16 April 2008. Archived from the original on 19 June 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ^ Florian Heesch, Reinhard Kopanski. 2017. "Klang - Text - Bild: Intermediale Aspekte der Black Metal-Forschung". ed. Sarah Chaker, Jakob Schermann, Nikolaus Urbanek. Analyzing Black Metal - Transdisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein düsteres Phänomen der Musikkultur. Transcript Verlag. pp. 29-33. ISBN 978-3-8376-3687-1
- ^ Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-1894959315.
- ^ Ramirez, Carlos (6 January 2009). "10 Great Black Metal Albums – IGN". ign.com. Retrieved 12 September 2012.